Respect

Respect means a lot of different things for different people. It includes taking someone’s feelings, needs, thoughts, ideas, wishes and preferences into consideration. It also means taking all of these seriously and giving them value. In fact, giving someone respect seems similar to valuing them and their thoughts and feelings. It also includes recognizing them, listening to them, being truthful with them, and accepting them as an individual. Respect can be shown through actions and it can also be felt. We can act in many ways that are considered respectful, but we can also feel respect for someone and feel respected by someone. Because it is possible to act in ways that do not reflect how we really feel, the feeling of respect is more important than the behavior without the feeling. When the feeling is there, the behavior will naturally follow. Respect once played a important role in our daily lives and our survival. If we think of a tribe walking in the desert we can think that a person not respected by anyone would be left behind to die and that person was considered to have no importance or value in the group. In today’s time it seems much more possible- to be able to survive without being respected. Someone could, for example, inherit a large sum of money, have many workers and salesmen constantly calling him on the daily basis and catering to him, and yet not one of his workers respected him at all. Someone could also make a large amount of money through having one or more talents which are valued, such as being able to dunk a basketball or being able to sing like Whitney Houston yet that person is still disrespected, perhaps because of the way that person treats others. When we are respected we gain the voluntary cooperation of many people. We don’t have to use as much of our energy and resources trying to get our needs met. When people respect one another there are fewer conflicts and there is a lesser chance of someone not taking the other seriously. In